2027 AUSTRALIAN FOLKLORE NETWORK CONFERENCE – Call for papers

The AFN conference will take place on the National Folk Festival site at EPIC, Canberra on Thursday, March 25, 2027. The call for papers is now open. Please send the

Title of your presentation

Brief summary

Brief biography

to g.seal@curtin.edu.au

AUSTRALIAN FOLKLORE NETWORK

The Australian Folklore Network has operated for over twenty years as a volunteer organisation that:

• Connects people doing research, collecting, archiving and dissemination of Australian folklore

• Publishes Transmissions newsletter since 2002

• Runs an annual conference in conjunction with the National Folk Festival.

• Supports related activities and projects

• Provides ad hoc advice to media, teachers, etc about Australian folklore

• Develops publications and resources, online and off

• Advocates for folklore research and the folk arts in Australia 

The AFN website is at https://sites.google.com/view/ausfolklore

If you wish to join the AFN and receive Transmissions, applications to g.seal@curtin.edu.au

VERANDAH MUSIC – GERMAN STYLE

Harry Schaefer and Band

Some more additions to the historical field recording on the Verandah Music Youtube channel. Rob Willis has digitised some early films of German song and music in Australia and provides below some background to the project.

A recent chance meeting with two lovely people from Temora reminded me of the many recordings of German traditions that we have made for the NLA. 

Pioneer folklorist John Meredith had an interest in the many cultures of Australia, it was not only about the 'old bush songs'. During the 1980s John, along with myself and others, recorded and filmed a number of traditional musicians and singers performing songs and tunes handed down in their German families. We have also included some later videos that followed the tradition of John's films including Forbes local, Harry Schaefer, definitely a musician of note.

Here is a playlist from our Verandah Music channel of some of these, I will be adding to it as time permits.

Please note that John's film "A Lutheran Legacy" was shot on super 8 FILM which did not give great audio and we were restricted by the short amount of film time - at 24 fps we got 2 minutes 30 seconds per segment. John loved the old-style newsreel type doco's and the editing was very basic with no digital facilities utilised. Making do with movies.

Others involved with the project include Bruce Cameron, Jamie Carlin, Olya Willis, Forbes Shire Council.

Please share the link https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeh_9si3jFvI

Readers might also be interested in other collections of German traditions in Australia, including:

Schuster Collection NLA https://www.library.gov.au/research/guides-and-resources/guides-selected-collections/schuster-collection. Includes stories and customs, as well as music and song. Also contains some Scandinavian traditions.

Mark Schuster’s website, Germany Downunder

The National Library of Australia also has significant other collections of German lore, oral history and culture at https://www.library.gov.au/term/germany

German Australia (also good education materials + links to other resources) 

Institutions like the State Library of South Australia and the State Library of Queensland maintain extensive regional immigrant papers, church and choir records (such as documentation of the historic Liedertafel singing groups in Adelaide and the Barossa Valley), shipping indexes, and early German-language Australian newspapers

Regional repositories like the Tatura Irrigation & Wartime Camps Museum in Victoria and holdings via Museums Victoria contain localized artifacts, community songbooks, and folk traditions related to waves of European migration.

Opening the Multilingual Archive of Australia (OMAA) This is a comprehensive research and educational resource out of Sydney University with connections to many other multicultural projects in other universities and institutions. It is not specifically folkloric in orientation but includes much that is, as well as valuable contextual information (also photographs) about the many ethnic groups covered, including German.

And, of course, you can always take yourself off to the Barossa and elsewhere in South Australia where many of these traditions are alive and well.

 

Sally Sloane – A River of Tradition

Sally Sloane

Sally (christened Sarah) Sloane was born at Parkes (NSW) in 1894. Her family were of Irish descent and nurtured a strong musical tradition of singing and instrumental music. Young Sally learned to play concertina, button accordion, jew’s harp and piano from her mother and also learned the fiddle, mouth organ and tin whistle. The sources of Sally’s extensive repertoire of Irish and Australian songs were her mother, her stepfather and other bush workers. Her singing and playing had a characteristic Irish lilt that distinguished it from other British-derived musical traditions.

 

An accomplished musician and singer, Sally performed at many locations around Lithgow, Parkes and Teralba and during World War 2 appeared at the famous Sydney Tivoli in troop benefit concerts. Just as she had learned her songs and tunes from within the family, so Sally passed her skills and repertoire to the next generation. The John Meredith Tape Collection in the National Library of Australia contains, among many other jewels, a superb duet of ‘Miss McLeod’s Reel’ performed by Sally on harmonica and her son Les on jew’s harp. (Tape 10B Item 15)

 

Sally’s outstanding musical ability and her extraordinary repertoire of ballads attracted the interest of many folklorists, including John Meredith, Edgar Waters, Warren Fahey and Graham McDonald. She was – and probably remains - the best-documented traditional singer and musician in Australia and features in many published and recorded works. A very rough and conservative estimate of her repertoire based on the John Meredith recordings held by the National Library (1954-1961) and other recordings of Sally made by Warren Fahey suggest she could perform on request at least 60 tunes and nearly 80 songs. She was also a better than fair spinner of yarns and a repository of local lore and legend about Ben Hall and other bushrangers of the Forbes district.

 

Sally’s broad repertoire was very much a joining of four major streams of Anglo Celtic musical traditions found in Australia. One stream consisted of mainly nineteenth century British broadside ballads such as ‘The Banks of Claudy’ and ‘The Red Barn’, a version of the best-selling English ballad on the murder of the pregnant Maria Marten by her lover, William Corder in 1827.  This stream also included rural English folksongs, such as ‘The Green Bushes’ and a strong helping of Irish street ballads and other traditional songs, such as ‘My Son Ted’ and ‘If I Was A Blackbird’.

 

A second stream was made up of a number of the older ballads like ‘Molly Baun Lavery’, which draws on an ancient international story of a young hunter who mistakes his true love for a swan and kills her. Also included here were some rarely recorded traditional carols such as  ‘Christ Was Born in Bethlehem’.

 

Australian traditional material formed a broad third stream, including poems of Henry Lawson and other poets set to music. One of many outstanding ballads in Sally Sloane’s  extensive repertoire was ‘Ben Hall’, a lament on the 1865 shooting of this folk outlaw hero by police as the bushranger slept. Like many of the Ben Hall ballads it portrays the outlaw in distinctly Australian terms. The song begins:

 

Come, all you young Australians and everyone besides,

I’ll sing to you a ditty that will fill you with surprise,

Concerning of a ‘ranger bold whose name it was Ben Hall,

But cruelly murdered was this day, which proved his downfall.

 

and ends:

 

It’s through Australia’s sunny clime Ben Hall will roam no more.

His name is spread both near and far to every distant shore.

For generations after this parents will to their children call,

And rehearse to them the daring deeds committed by Ben Hall.

 

A fourth stream of Sally’s song and tunes flowed from the popular music of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with songs like ‘Boys of the Dardanelles’, ‘The Coolgardie Miner’ and her robust accordion rendition of ‘McNamara’s Band’. These streams ran together into a wide and deep river of Australian traditional music that Sally ferried with great skill.

 

Sally Sloane was a lively and friendly woman who made collectors welcome with cups of tea and more than enough to eat. Well aware of her celebrity status among folklorists, she was extremely generous as a performer, Warren Fahey and I recording over forty items from her in one memorable day at her Lithgow home in 1976. As with many traditional singers, Sally’s music was tied closely to the rhythms of family life and domestic routine and she would sing many of her songs as she did the washing up.

 

Sally Sloane died in 1982 but the extensive and important traditions of which she was an extraordinary bearer live on in the many recordings she made for collectors. You can listen to a large selection at https://sallysloane.wordpress.com/

 

Graham Seal (from Verandah Music: Roots of Australian Tradition)

VERANDAH MUSIC AT THE NATIONAL FOLK FESTIVAL 2026

(l-r) Matt Nightingale, Jac Bradley, Kev Bradley, Chloe Roweth, Jason Roweth, Graham Seal, Ollie Willis, Rob Willis

This year, Rob Willis and Olya Willis received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the National Folk Festival, recognising their sustained collection and documentation of Australian folklore and oral history. Under the banner of Sharing the Harvest we presented an hour- long selection of traditional song and music collected from many thousands of recordings of Australians from different cultures, countries, locations and occupations all around the country. See previous post on the collection at. 

We had plenty of help from the band in the picture above. Christina Mimmocchi, Gemma Turner and Clarita Derwent (The Third Voice) were also due to join us but were prevented by a virus from attending the festival. Like all the band members, they have taken part in festival performances organised by Rob and Olya over the past thirty or so years, completing the link between collecting, archiving and sharing the folklore harvest.

Graham, Rob and Olya

LAST OF THE OLD TIME BUSH CONCERTINA PLAYERS

Bob Bolton Collection, Bush Music Club

Here are some rare film clips of traditional Australian concertina players recorded by Rob Willis while collecting with John Meredith in the 1980s.

The players are Lionel Pietsch, Ernie Wells and Bob Payne, probably the last generation of old time bush players 

You can read John Harpley’s story about Bob from the original Verandah Music book here and find more recordings of his work at the National Library of Australia.

Bob and Rob squeezing

WALTZING MATILDA – A WHOLE NEW TAKE

Renowned Australian folk musician and singer Dave de Hugard has been singing and researching ‘Waltzing Matilda’, in one version or another, for many years. He has now released the fruits of his labours – a different angle on the origins of the famous song and a compelling new composition based on the original.

You can read about what ‘Banjo’ Paterson may have had on his mind when composing the first version of ‘Waltzing Matilda’ here

Listen to Dave sing his new song, ‘Waltzing Matilda: The Real Swagman’s Story’ here. (scroll to bottom of page)

Coincidentally, Dave also has a couple of new album releases out and available here

In the meantime, here are the lyrics of the new song:

'WALTZING MATILDA: THE REAL SWAGMAN'S STORY.'

There once was a swagman camped by the billabong,

Under the shade of a Coolibah tree.

He sang as he looked, at his old billy boiling,

“Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?”

“Who'll come a-waltzing, waltzing Matilda

  Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?

  A billy, a swag, carrying a water bag,

  Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?”

Down came a jumbuk to drink at the billabong

Up jumped the swagman, he grabbed it with glee.

He sang as he put it away in his tucker bag,

“You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.”

“Who'll come a-waltzing, waltzing Matilda

  Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?

  A billy, a swag, carrying a water bag,

  Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?”

These were troubled times – shearer's camps full.

Troops, police, everywhere – they would not clip that wool.

He saw the law a-comin' – something bothered him...

It could hav e been the jumbuk...or were they comin' after him?

“What they're after I don't know – I'm not gonna wait and see!”

He doused the fire, then into the billabong went he.

“For me Liberty!” but this was not to be...

Sadly he drowned by that Coolibah tree.

No more, no more would he waltz his Matilda,

Or throw down his swag 'neath the Coolibah tree,

Or sing away merrily, as he made his billy tea,

“Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?”

There is a little more to this swagman story

I will tell you something that has been told to me

You can still hear him sing, if you listen carefully,

Singing merrily away 'neath that Coolibah tree.

“Who'll come a-waltzing, waltzing Matilda

  Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?

  A billy, a swag, carrying a water bag,

  Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?”

(c) Dave de Hugard

Castlemaine 

January 2026

THE PHILIP ASHTON VIDEO COLLECTION

THE PHILIP ASHTON VIDEO COLLECTION

Dave Mathias

Philip Ashton has been recording, photographing and videoing the stories of Australia for many decades. His collection covers a broad range of fascinating people, stories and topics, including field recordings of traditional musicians Dave Mathias and Harry McQueen and rare interviews with folklorists John Meredith, Bill Scott and Shirley Andrews, and much more. 

Many thanks to Philip for permission to put several of his videos on our Verandah Music Youtube channel here

lf you want to see more of Phillip's many significant recordings go here

Buskers, balladeers and broadsiders – or beggars - in colonial Sydney

 

The Flying Pieman - William Francis King

Tony Smith has been researching colonial Sydney's street performers - forerunners of today's buskers. You can read the results in our articles section here:

BALLADS AND POLITICS

Politics in ballad form – Stockwell and the 1975 Dismissal

Reviewed by Tony Smith

Whitlam speaking after the dissolution of parliament, 1975. National Archives of Australia A6180 13/11/75/34

Stephen Stockwell 1975: The Ballads of the Whitlam Dismissal (Tallebudgera Press 2025)

This book of some 160 pages includes 45 pages of ballads describing the key events of 11 November 1975. Media academic Stephen Stockwell has taken up the poet’s pen to explore politics. Previous publications include ‘The Voyage and the Vision’ and ‘The Phoenician Sonnets’.

On the fiftieth anniversary of the dismissal of the Whitlam government by Governor General John Kerr, all Australians will consider the strength of our democracy. Those of us who were appalled by the removal of the elected government by a representative of a foreign monarch will no doubt still worry that Australian democracy hangs by a thread. And given the possibility of involvement by the USA because of concerns for the security of its spy and military installations, we will no doubt wonder whether Canberra holds any power except with the permission of the UK and the USA. Stephen Stockwell explores these questions fearlessly.

Much of the content of the dozen or so ballads is explained in the essay which follows called ‘Spies, Lies and Sovereignty’. Stockwell focuses mainly on the foreign influence rather than domestic constitutional politics.

The ballads have titles for themes, such as ‘A Sovereign State’, ‘Smoking Gun’, ‘Loans Affair’, Bad Omens’ and ‘Aftermath’ or for people ‘Michael Hand’, ‘Gough Whitlam’, ‘John Kerr’, ‘Jim and Junie’ and ‘The Fall of Gough Whitlam’. ‘Prelude’ is also in ballad form and is echoed by an ‘Epilogue’. As well as both creative and academic style writing, Stockwell supplies illustrations in the form of original caricatures.

Introducing ‘The Penguin Book of Australian Ballads’ Russell (‘Australian Legend’) Ward explains that a ballad is ‘narrative folk-verse or narrative literary verse written in the style of folk ballads’. There is no point in opening old debates about what ‘folk’ might. John Manifold was sceptical about the utility of the term when he gave his influential book the title ‘Penguin Australian Songbook’. Importantly, Stockwell strives to make his ballads broadly accessible.

Most of the ballads are lengthy, but would be well received at the traditional Poets’ Breakfasts held at folk festivals. For me the shorter verse of ‘Prelude’ and ‘Epilogue’ are more succinct and appealing. The first opens with the question ‘Remember, remember November eleven/ That day of infamy/ When Gough Whitlam was sacked, democracy attacked/ We lost our sovereignty?’

The ‘Epilogue’ asks of the future ‘Will Eureka’s flag fly, o’er a nation that tried/ To live in liberty? Remember, remember November eleven/ As we yearn to be free/ We can’t escape the blame, while we’re pawns in their game/ And still a colony’. Stockwell does not let us off the hook.

In ‘Aftermath’ Stockwell notes that ‘Our scribes and artists are outraged,/ They rally to the cause: There’s Rodney Hall and Midnight Oil,/ The George Miller, of course/ My friend, that sleuth Jan Mkemmish/ Wrote “Gap in the Records’,/ Peter Carey penned “Tristan Smith”,/ Warned of “Amnesia’s” force’.

The irreverent Norman Gunston was there in 1975 on the steps of Parliament House with Whitlam and Kerr’s secretary. Musicians expressing disgust include Red Gum - ‘Tell Malcolm we’re serving, serving USA’ - and John Dengate with ‘Old King Kerr’. As recently as 2022 Bob Wilson and the Goodwills won the Alistair Hulett Songs for Social Justice Award with a song called ‘When Whitlam took his turn at the wheel’.

Other examples of satire appear in the work of John Clarke and cartoonist Michael Leunig, and in Warren Fahey’s ‘The Balls of Bob Menzies’ (1989). The Gillies Report in 1983 had a special called

‘Il Dismissale’. Most of these works were expressions of outrage at the political damage to the left and the shame heaped upon Australia.

Stockwell’s ballads focus on the broader question of the deleterious effects of foreign interference on our political culture. Stockwell is a musician, a member of ‘Brisbane’s Black Assassins’ an elusive punk band of the 1980s during the ‘Reich of Jackboot Joh’. A CD of the ballads would be a fine addition.

In concluding remarks Stockwell notes the unlikely reconciliation between Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser who took political advantage of the Whitlam government’s difficulties over supply and was known as ‘Kerr’s cur’. Stockwell sees a message of hope there for ‘our democracy, our nation and the sovereignty on which it rests: the Australian people – First nations, colonial settlers and multicultural migrants – we are all in this thing, Australia, together’.

 

BUSH TRADITIONS WEB RESOURCES

 

 

The new Bush Traditions website is at https://www.bushtraditions.org/ with a link to Australian Social Dance and Music an organisation dedicated to ‘interest and participation in traditional and contemporary social dance and its music’ - https://ausdam.org
 
The Australian Traditional Music Archive (ATMA) is at  https://austradmusic.au/ . Tunes and relevant information have been enhanced and made more accessible and usable.

All invaluable resources for study or pleasure.